Portable tray



May 5,1942. v 2,281,653

' PORTABLE TRAY Filed April 22, 1940 VENTOR. JOH L. WORLEY- A RNEY..

Patented May 5, 1942 o-rrlc Teletype Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application April 22, 1940, Serial No. 330,925

1 Claim. (01. 220-31) The present invention relates to portable trays and particularly to improvements in receptacles of this nature which are positioned or subdivided into a plurality of storage spaces.

In transferring manufactured piece parts from one part of a shop to another between successive machining operations or between successive assembly operations, a practice has developed of confining counted numbers of said parts or subassemblies in portable receptacle chambers commensurate with the weight and physical dimensions of said piece parts and consistent with the practicability of handling numbers of said parts by means of available shop transportation facilities. Usually, the more delicate piece parts re-.

quire individual storage while the heavier and coarser piece parts may correspondingly be transported in bulk, but in the case of subassemblies, by which term is meant partially assembled apparatus which is to advance to further stages toward completion in other parts of a shop, transportation requires for the sake of safety that each subassembly be confined within an individual enclosure.

Whether for the indicated reasons or for still other reasons which may be readily understood, the confinement of piece parts in comparatively large handling trays is materially benefited by the provision of partitioned chambers to facilitate segregation, and while the handling trays or outer supporting bodies are preferably of standard size and shape, in order to make them practicably useful throughout a shop, local requirements for various manufactured articles are usually special and peculiar, so that the size and arrangement within the handling trays will vary considerably and will, therefore, require a range of differences in partitioning elements. In order to be able to use the same trays as the need of different parts of a shop require, the partitioning element is preferably constructed as a separate unit from the piece part handling tray. Moreover, this practice is preferred for the reason that it affords an opportunity for inspection, cleaning and overhauling of the lighter and, therefore, necessarily less durable partitioning units without having to remove from service the trays proper which do not necessarily require the periodic servicing indicated above. The making of the partitioning unit as a separable member from the trays gives rise, however, to a need for securing the two parts against accidental separation and even against intentional separation where, through carelessness, etc., the fillers or partitioning units might be omitted by operators whose activity may not be under surveillance to prevent this practice.

Accordingly, a principal object of the-present invention is to provide a piece part handling tray construction in which the partitioning unit is a single rigid assembly separable from an outershell or tray under conditions of reasonable inconvenience, but readily combinable with its said tray so as to aiford accessibility'for cleaning, replacement, relining, etc.

For a more comprehensive understanding of the present invention, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing and to the following detailed specification wherein like reference characters are employed to designate corresponding parts throughout, and wherein;

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a piece part handling tray and partitioning unit assembly with a portion broken away to reveal structural details; and

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken longitudinally of the assembly illustrated in Fig. 1.

The outer receptacle I I, generally referred to as the piece part handling tray, is a shallow rectangular dish which may have its vertical wall sections inclined inwardly to a slight degree, as best indicated in Fig, 2. Thewall sections continue horizontally and are bent outwardly at their upper extremity so as to form a ledge l2 defined by a perimetric seam l3 constituted of the tray metal doubled-back upon itself to obtain thereby rigidity or reinforcement. The proportioning of the space afiorded within the perimetric seam I3 is suflicientlylarge to receive the perimetric outline of the tray bottom and is adequately supported upon the ledge [2 so, that in practice, a number of trays l I may be nested one on top of another by having successively the bottoms of ones confined within the outline of the perimetric seams l3.

At each end of said trays there is secured to its vertical wall section a hinged {handle l4 formed of heavy wire stock bent so as to provide inwardly disposed trunnions which are receivable for support in the loops l5 of a pair of straps l6 secured as by the inwardly protruding rivets I 1 for which further utility is found, as will later be described.

Within the inner chamber of each tray II is a rectangular space into which may be inserted a so-called filler l8 consisting essentially of four outer wall sections designated, in Fig. 1, I 9, 2|, 22 (Fig. 2) and 23, the abutting ends of which may be secured together in any of several wellknown manners, such as by dove-tail interlock well-known to the industry of crating and box manufacture.

It is to be noted that the filler I8 is preferably shorter than its tray II by an extent, indicated in Fig. 2, sufficient to permit of the disposition at each of its ends of a spring retaining latch 21 consisting essentially of a plate of resilient material, such as spring steel, secured to the lowermost extremity of the end walls l9 and 22' as by the anchor screws 28, Fig. 2, and bent as at 29, so as to flare outwardly and upwardly to engage with its upper extremities against the inner wall surface of the tray end walls. The

width of each element 21 and its vertical dimen-' sion is such that its upper extremities terminate just beneath the inwardly extending rivet projections 11, described above, which extremities prevent the removal of the fillers l8 by interfering with said latching springs 21 under normal conditions.

When it is desired to remove a filler unit l8 from its tray I I, this may be done by inserting a prying tool 3 l such as a screwdriver, behind each of latching springs 21, an entry recess especially provided for this purpose being aiforded on account of the cutout portion 32 centrally of each latching spring 21 near its upper extremity.

On account of the nature of certain cargo transported in receptacles of this type, soiling of the receptacles is not uncommon so that it may be desirable to plan comparatively frequent cleansing thereof. Experience has taught moreover, that the provision of a bottom septum as an integral element of the filler unit l8 may be expected to aggravate the problem of preventing soil and minimizing cleansing operations so that the practice has arisen of omitting the bottom septum and permitting the piece parts to rest within their subdivisional compartments upon the tray bottoms as may be readily understood. This practice is not entirely satisfactory, however, where thin piece parts are employed and where there is chance for some of the piece parts to slip under the partitioning walls and thereby escape attention during unloading operations. For this reason, it is herewith proposed to so space the engagement between the upper extremities of latching springs 21 and the inwardly protruding rivet members I1 as to afford a small amount of clearance which will then be utilized by providing lines 33. These may consist of paper or other inexpensive sheets that can be discarded periodically, or they may, if preferred, consist of an absorbent or resilient material which will afford the additional advantages of removing surplus fluid accumulations that sometimes adhere to the piece parts as a result of machine processing or other treatment.

While the present invention has been explained and described with reference to the specific embodiment, it is to be understood that the detailed description in the foregoing specification, and the particular illustrations in the accompanying drawing'are toconstitute no limitations upon its scope except as indicated by the hereunto appended claim,

What is claimed is:

The combination with a rectangular steel tray having bottom and side walls, of a partitioning filler unit supported on said bottom wall comprising an integrally associated plurality of vertical partitioning elements, a perimetric wall section associated with said partitioning elements spaced to provide clearance distances between said perimetric walls and the inner side wall surfaces of said steel tray, and resilient means comprising flared spring plates secured to said filler adjacent the bottom thereof, extending upwardly and under tension against the inner side wall surfaces of said tray, said plates having a cut-out notch in the free edge thereof which engages said tray and continues to a limited extent for providing admittance to a springing tool thereat.

JOHN L. WORLEY. 

